SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Brocade(R) (Nasdaq: BRCD), the leading provider of data center networking solutions that help enterprises connect and manage their information, today introduced new Brocade Adaptive Networking services, addressing evolving requirements to dynamically manage virtualization in the data center. These innovative network services are available as features on the new Brocade DCX(TM) Backbone, which was also introduced today.

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Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008

SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Brocade(R) (Nasdaq: BRCD), the leading provider of data center networking solutions that help enterprises connect and manage their information, today introduced new Brocade Adaptive Networking services, addressing evolving requirements to dynamically manage virtualization in the data center. These innovative network services are available as features on the new Brocade DCX(TM) Backbone, which was also introduced today.

"As IT organizations deploy greater numbers of virtual servers with networked storage to consolidate resources and improve utilization, they must be able to efficiently adapt to the dynamic management and provisioning needs of the 'virtualized' data center," said Enterprise Strategy Group Analyst Bob Laliberte. "The replacement of static, dedicated connections between physical servers and storage with dynamic connections between virtual resources creates new management requirements and greater potential for congestion. Brocade Adaptive Networking services combined with the Brocade DCX Backbone offer innovative solutions to help simplify and accelerate effective management of virtualized data centers."

To address new virtualization challenges, the data center network must be able to rapidly and intelligently adapt in order to assign the appropriate resources, workloads, and service levels to corporate applications as they move and operate in a virtualized environment-a concept known as adaptive networking.

Brocade's policy-based approach provides a wire-once architecture that optimizes resources and helps to eliminate human error. Brocade Adaptive Networking services enable the fabric to dynamically allocate shared resources as changes occur in the requirements of virtualized elements in the data center, such as servers, networks, and storage. If congestion occurs (or is predicted), the fabric can automatically adjust bandwidth and other resources according to defined service levels-helping to ensure that higher-priority workloads dynamically receive the resources they need.

Brocade highlighted four key Adaptive Networking services for the increasingly virtualized data center. All are available on the Brocade DCX Backbone announced today:

— Adaptive Fabric Quality of Service (QoS): This feature enables a detailed allocation of data center fabric resources to applications based on the relative importance of the application as defined by its QoS assignment. Brocade virtual channel technology allows each QoS priority to follow its assigned application as the application moves between physical and/or virtualized server and network connections, dynamically adjusting resources to avoid congestion. — Adaptive Traffic Management services: This set of innovative Brocade technologies provides data flow and congestion management to support application service levels. Advanced queuing algorithms remove congestion potential and dedicate bandwidth to specific applications as needed. — Dynamic Fabric Profiling services: With these services, Brocade uniquely provides end-to-end analysis of individual application data flows and resource usage, supplying in-depth information about the impact on overall fabric performance. These services identify possible points of congestion, and monitor and report on numerous statistics for physical resource utilization. — Adaptive Policy Management services: This capability detects under- utilized shared physical resources, reclaiming or reallocating them to optimize application flow according to defined policies-further ensuring that virtualized resources receive the appropriate amount of physical performance. Adaptive Networking services from Brocade are available as part of the new Brocade Fabric OS(R) 6.0 software release, included with the new Brocade DCX Backbone. Many of the services also are available as an upgrade to the company's large installed base of Brocade 48000 Directors.

Brocade is a leading provider of data center networking solutions that help organizations connect, share, and manage their information in the most efficient manner. Organizations that use Brocade products and services are better able to optimize their IT infrastructures and ensure compliant data management. For more information, visit the Brocade Web site at http://www.brocade.com or contact the company at info@brocade.com.

Brocade, Fabric OS, File Lifecycle Manager, MyView, and StorageX are registered trademarks and the Brocade B-wing symbol, DCX, and SAN Health are trademarks of Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., in the United States and/or in other countries. All other brands, products, or service names are or may be trademarks or service marks of, and are used to identify, products or services of their respective owners.